PEF: “My Masterpieces: Discovering Art in My Community”

Is a collaborative program that takes full advantage of Pasadena’s remarkable cultural resources to deliver a diverse and comprehensive visual arts curriculum. The award-winning program of the Pasadena Educational Foundation, operated in partnership with Pasadena Unified School District and ten local museums and cultural institutions. The program serves every K-6 student in PUSD, providing community-based arts learning opportunities for over 9,500 students and 490 teachers in Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre.

The program links arts-integrated classroom lessons taught by PUSD teachers with a related field trip component led by staff or docents from the partnering museums and visual arts institutions.

Each arts partner is matched with a grade level:

• Grade K – Kidspace Children’s Museum
• Grade 1 – Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens
• Grade 2 – City of Pasadena – Public Art Walking Tour, provided by Side Street Projects
• Grade 3 – The Gamble House
• Grade 4 – Pasadena Museum of History
• Grade 5 – Norton Simon Museum and Armory Center for the Arts
• Grade 6 – USC Pacific Asia Museum

Note: For Grade 3, Descanso Gardens is now piloting a new field trip/classroom lesson combination in addition to the Gamble House.

The Ongoing Goals of “My Masterpieces” Are To:

• Engage all PUSD K-6 students in integrated curriculum that engages them with eleven museums and visual arts organizations to teach them creative skills and content knowledge and develop their critical thinking and interpretive abilities.
• Increase the knowledge and ability of teachers to incorporate the arts into everyday teaching and learning in the classroom.
• Encourage teachers, students, PUSD families, and the broader Pasadena community to take advantage of these resources by reducing barriers to participation.

The impact of “My Masterpieces” on student knowledge, comprehension, skills, creativity and achievement is measured mainly through annual surveys of their classroom teachers.

Pasadena Educational Foundation, 351 South Hudson Ave. RM 153, Pasadena, pef@pasedfoundation.org, (626) 396-3625 or visit https://pasedfoundation.org/.